The Namibian table grape harvesting season will just about be over by the time we sit down to our Christmas dinners, but growers in the region say despite the short season they will increasingly make more impact on the global grape business.

The production in Namibia is mostly located in the Aussenkehr region on the northern bank of the Orange River in the south of the country. They call it Grape Valley, and to get there you have to cross the Orange River at a place called Vioolsdrift (Violin Drift), turn left almost immediately once you are past customs and head towards the Atlantic Ocean, away from the N-7 highway between Cape Town and Windhoek. You travel on a dirt road, through a landscape where you do not see any green plants, until you drive over a hill and in front of you, there it is.

One needs to know where these grapes come from and appreciate the effort that the growers and exporters go through to get it on the world’s markets. Once packed and in containers, they travel to Cape Town, some 900km away, and are then shipped.

The Namibian business has seen quite a bit of change lately. After years of dispute the old firms at Aussenkehr, headed by the veteran Dusan Vasiljevic and operating under the umbrella of Navico, have finally ended their association with Olympic Fruit. They appointed Hillfresh International BV, also based in Barendrecht, as their sole distributors in Europe.

At the other end of the valley a new venture between leading South African producers and marketers, Grape Alliance, has formed a unique new partnership with leading apple, pear, stonefruit and vegetable exporters, Dutoit International. Grape Alliance always had farms in Namibia, but by purchasing one of Dusan Vasiljevic’s farms along with Dutoit International, they boosted volumes from the region by some 700,000 cartons.

Although Dutch arbitration finally freed the old Namibian table grape exporters from their exclusive marketing deal with Olympic Fruit, both Dusan and his partner Deon Brand acknowledge that it was an unpleasant period. “We are finally vindicated,” says the old veteran of the Southern African grape business. “Now we can go ahead and expand our business with new partners in which we have confidence.”

Andre Vermaak, executive member of the Namibian table grape growers and managing director of Capespan Namibia, confirms that cold weather in the spring has somewhat reduced crop prospects, but adds Namibia has a crop of excellent quality. It is expected that total exports will be below four million cartons this year.

Apart from the growth in red and black seedless, growers here will also see more of the new cultivar range to be sold under the ARRA banner. These varieties were evaluated for the first time last season and drew interest from across South Africa, mainly because they do not carry any marketing restrictions and are popular with growers who would like to export their own fruit.

Vermaak says South African grape growers have been flocking to Namibia to see the new varieties. “They are free varieties and can be planted and marketed by any company and this is one of the main reasons why growers want to plant them.”

Meanwhile GoReefers Logistics will launch its own office in Namibia next month. GoReefers Logistics Namibia will handle a considerable volume of the containers carrying grapes from the region.

With the season at a peak, there is also still much concern about the effect that steeply increasing container freight rates will have on the grape industry. There has been a backlash against the increases of US$1,500 per container mooted by Maersk and exporters are reported to be contracting other shipping lines as well as considering moving to conventional reefer shipping again. —